Sheriff's Office: Address mixup preceded deputy shooting

STOCKTON - The deputy who accidentally injured a mother and child and shot a dog in east Stockton this week was at the wrong house, the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office acknowledged Friday.

Ellen Thompson

STOCKTON - The deputy who accidentally injured a mother and child and shot a dog in east Stockton this week was at the wrong house, the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office acknowledged Friday.

The deputy was part of an eight-member code enforcement team called Tuesday to Munford Avenue on a complaint about drug use in a trailer near the 2706 Munford Ave. address.

"The paperwork did indicate this address," sheriff's spokesman Deputy Les Garcia said Friday.

Garcia said the original complaint was for a house in the 2600 block, but a computer search produced the wrong address.

Kari Bailey, 23, and her 5-year-old daughter, Hayley, were hit in the legs with bullet fragments and suffered minor injuries when their dog was shot in the paw on the front stoop. Garcia said the dog had threatened a deputy.

The Baileys' house is among several rental houses on a single property. The Baileys have said since the incident that deputies were at the wrong door.

Until Friday, the Sheriff's Office said the code enforcement team was at the right address. Garcia said team members have since been interviewed by investigators, and he and Sheriff Steve Moore learned their findings Friday.

The Baileys could not be reached to comment on the development, but their lawyer, Michael Cardoza, said the news concerned him.

"If they go to the wrong house, the people there are not expecting police, and certainly not with weapons," he said.

Garcia released a few more details of the shooting Friday. He said 19-year veteran Deputy Terry Breitmaier fired a single shot at the dog's paw and that pockmarks in the house door jamb were from bullet fragments.

Garcia said Breitmaier was positioned outside the house with a handgun drawn before the dog approached him.

Members of the team reported seeing what appeared to be someone running to the back of the Bailey house when they arrived. A sergeant and deputy went to the back while Breitmaier stood out front, Garcia said.

The abatement team addresses unsafe living conditions and includes armed deputies for the safety of environmental health workers, Garcia said. A team includes a sergeant, two deputies, two environmental health workers and two code enforcement officers, and often a California Highway Patrol officer.

Cardoza said the family has not filed a lawsuit, but he is asking the Sheriff's Office to pay the dog's veterinary bills and to preserve all the evidence they collect in the investigation.

Daisy, the Rottweiler mix who was shot, returned home Friday after being treated by a veterinarian.